Pope John Paul II and the landscape of the heart

Media

Part of The Cross

Title: Pope John Paul II and the landscape of the heart
Creator: Coronel, Maria Delia
Language: English
Year: 1981
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Fulltext: INTRODUCTION Who is lie who comes in the name of the Lord? As soon as a person is elected suddenly to a very higl; office, folk lore begins to gather around him. Old friends and acquaintances look back through the accumulated memories of yesterday and interestingly discover signs and portents that indeed, he had his high position written in the stars i for him. When Karol Wojtyla became JoKn Paul II, such a tiling happened. To discover the true facts from the starry renditions is quite a feat. How ever, there is nothing like first-hand information. And so, let us allow His Holiness, John Paul II. and some close friends and associates, to tell us about himself. Facts are facts. Interpreta tions are something else. With today’s easy access to media, our present Holy Father is an over written subject. A huge amount of type has been set on reams of paper about him and will continue to grow as he makes good copy. But one cannot single out a person and lift him out of his milieu. Background is always needed. And for Karol Wojtyla, we choose the landscape of the heart. The poet in him explains: (EV) “Hands are the heart’s landscape. They split sometimes like ravines into which an undefined force rolls. The very same hands which man opens when his palms have had their fill of toil. Now he sees: because of him alone others can walk in peace.” (The Quarry, tr. by Jersy Peterkiewicz) Having known what it is to work with one’s hand, Pope John Paul II knows what hands are best used for: peace. Because of him, working sin cerely with others, he hopes that all of us can, one day, walk in peace. Blessed is he who comes in the Pope John Paul II and the Landscape of the name of the Lord! On the birth and family of Karol Wojtyla, the parish register of Wadowice presents the following in formation: (TPP) Bom 18 May 1920 in No. 2 Koscielna Street, to Karol Wojtyla, aged 40, and Emilia Kaszorowska, aged 35. Karol’s mother died when he was nine years old, his brother, three years later, while his father died in 1941. Thus at 21, Karol was completely alone in this world. His family was poor as they had to live on the meagre pension of his father, a retired lieutenant of the Corps of Supplies first in the Imperial Polish army. When the war broke out, this pension stopped, and father and son had to make do with the pay Karol received as a worker in the quany. However, from the beginning, his father saw to it that his son received a very good education. Because Karol was bom when his parents were middle-aged, he was sur rounded by old people and this tended to make him precocious and pushed him towards an earlier maturity. As a student, Dr. Edward Zacher, parish priest of Wadowice writes: “At 11, attending secondary school, Karol was the best pupil in school, the brightest. His marks were not only* very good, but excellent. An ideal pupil.” (TPP) When Prince Adam Cardinal Sapieha, Archbishop of Krakow, came to visit the school, Karol, as head-boy prepared a speech. Noticeably impress ed by the boy, the Cardinal asked Karol if he would be a priest and Karol replied: “No, I am going to the Uni versity to study literature. And then I am also interested in-the theatre.” (TPP) Graduating at the top of his class of 18, Karol moved to Krakow with his father in 1938. He enrolled at the Jagiellonian University, fust known as the Krakow Academy, which was the second college of higher learning to be established in Central Europe after the University of Prague. Karol was'active not only in class but in drama and played the part of Taurus in the stage. presentation of The Knight of the Moon in 1939. However, in September Page 6 CROSS of that year, Hitler invaded Poland and the University was closed as the Germans wanted to wipe out Polish intellectual thought since Hitler saw the Poles as slaves. In 1940 students had an under ground university where they met sec retly in private houses or rooms so that by 1942, there were 5 secret faculties with 136 lecturers teaching more than 800 students. Karol studied at night and worked during the day in order to get a work certificate, an Arbeitskarte, which pro tected him from round-ups and even | permitted him to walk through the ; city after curfew. Thanks to the in fluence of his French teacher, Mrs. Leqaj, he got a job as a manual worker in the Solvay Chemical Plant at Borek Falecki near Krakow. The Solvay works owned some quarries in Zakrzowek where the enormous lime stone cliffs were blasted with dyna mite. For a start, Karol had to fill a wheelbarrow with soil cleaned from the stones in order to clear the work places. Later, he was made assistant to Labus who was in charge of placing the dynamite on the stones. After the blast, he was free to go inside and read until the next blasting job. He would work from early morning until 3:00 p.m. Karol started studying at the begin ning of 1942 but he did not continue his studies in Literature but began studying Theology. Liberation dawned on January 17, 1945. Poland had emerged triumphant from the war with Germany but had suffered losses which per head of population were among the greatest of the countries which took part in the war. The University emerged from the underground and when the new aca demic year was inaugurated in March, Karol was in his fourth year of theolo gical studies. He took his final examin ations in August of 1946 and was finally ordained in 1 November 1946 in the private chapel of Cardinal Sapieha. After his ordination, Fr. Wojtyla went on his first journey to Rome from which he would come back two years later. He was to work for a doctorate in philosophy at the famous Pontifical Angelicum University run by the Dominicans. He chose for his studies the work of the 16th century Spanish Discalced Carmelite, St. John of the Cross. To be able to read his works in the original, Karol learned Spanish and being in Rome, he also picked up the Italian language. His studies in Rome involved an enormous amount of work but he managed with it excellently. Summers found him serving the Polish communities in BelLove is the sustaining power of Pope John Paul Il's pontificate. Love is the climate and the heart is the landscape in which one grows. It is the necessary answer to the question of Jesus: Do you love me? gium, or Holland, or in France. At the Angelicum, Karol came under the direction of Pere Reginald Garrigou-Langrange, O.P., the famous French Dominican whose Thomism was unrelenting and who saw in St. John of the Cross a confirmation of the major theses of Aquinas. Karol’s dissertation “The Concept of Faith in the Writings of St. John of the Cross” was under his direction, and it is said that his influence is seen in the Pope’s theological conservatism. Having earned his doctorate in 1948, he returned to Poland where he was assigned by Cardinal Sapieha as auxiliary priest in the village of Niegowic, 35 kilometers from Krakow where he stayed for a year under the pastoral influence of its zealous parish priest, Msgr. Buzala. Fr. Wojtyla went about his parish duties quietly. After 13 months, he was transferred to the parish of St. Florian in Krakow where he stayed for two years. It was in this place that he showed his exceptional talent for working with young people. Young people were drawn to him and he felt at case with them, a special charisma that is characteristic of Pope John Paul 11. In the middle of 1951, Cardinal Sapieha again sent Karol back to the University to take up post-doctoral studies. He began his research on the subject he had chosen: the phenome nological ethics of the German philo sopher Max Scheier (1874-1928). Scheier believed in a practical philo sophy, the starting point being the irreducible uniqueness of human and humanizing emotions, believing that love is the pioneer of values, that is, the way by which goodness and other values are discerned and discovered. Unless we love, Scheier claimed, we cannot know. (TYYP) Karol was interested and made a thesis: “On the Possibility of Basing a Catholic Ethics on the System of Max Scheier” which he successfully defended and he was awarded the rank of assistant professor by a decree of the Central Academic Qualifications Commission on 31 October 1957. Actually, Fr. Wojtyla was already teaching Moral Theology and Moral Ethics at the Krakow Seminary but now he was offered a post in the University as Lecturer in Ethics in the Faculty of Christian Philosophy. The staff had brilliant professors who usually met regularly in the house of the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Jerzy Kalinowski to indulge in long philosophical discus sion which the young Prof. Wojtyla thoroughly enjoyed. It was also at this time that he introduced the holding of classes out of doors, in the hills, forests, lakes, and rivers. In fact, it was on 4 July 1958, during a kayaking (canoeing)' JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1981 LANDSCAPE OF THE HEART continuation holiday in Mazuria, that he received the news that Pope Pius Xll had appointed him auxiliary bishop of Krakow. On September 28, 1958, at Wawel Cathedral, Karol Wojtyla was consecrated bishop by Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak. He chose for his coat of arms a black cross on a blue background with the letter M for Mary in the right-hand corner and the mot to: “Totus Tuus” (All yours). As Pope, he retained the same coat of arms just changing the black cross to a golden one. With the opening of the Vatican Council, Bishop Wojtyla took part in all the sessions of the Council. After the second session on 30 December 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Krakow. The staff at the bishop’s residence had to adapt themselves to the constant ^stream. of visitors who came to visit the Arch bishop. It is said that if the residence was quiet, it meant that the Arch bishop was not at home. He was often out on pastoral visitations, episcopal conferences, or trips abroad, and he provided time for his two holiday periods in summer and in winter. On 29 May 1967, Archbishop Wojtyla, barely 47 years old, became the youngest member of the College of Cardinals. As Cardinal, more work was piled on him. He had a table and a lamp fitted in his car and spent each journey working. At this time, he trained himself in yet another skill which fascinated some and depressed the others, which was to read piles of literature and letters which he always carried while attending meetings, aca demic seminars, lectures and symposia. He read continuously regardless of whether anyone was saying something or not. This disconcerted those who did not know the Cardinal, w'ho thought that he was not listening to them and slighting them. However, he amazed them during the subsequent , discussions when he would ask leading questions or, as moderator, summarize the whole discussion expertly. He had simply developed an extraordinary ability to divide his attention. In spite of the enormous amount of this work, during this period as cardinal, he had over forty academic publications, ihcluding three books. He was regarded as an unbelievably hard-working *man of incredible ability. He continued as head of the Department of Ethics of the Catholic University of Lublin but there was less time to meet his class. More and more, it had to be done during his holidays. His regular time off yearly meant two weeks for skiing in winter, and in summer, a month’s holiday climbing, mountains or hiking or canoeing. This hectic physical outing was on orders from his physician, Dr. Stanislaus Koznacki, who had treated him when he fell sick with a mild form of leukemia around 1960 and had recom mended to the then Bishop Wojtyla outdoor sports as a preventive measure. Because of these out-door exercises,, the Cardinal developed a very hardy constitution. The 1970’s were a time of con tinual foreign trips for Cardinal Wojtyla, with congresses, academic symposia, and pastoral visits which took took him to his countrymen scattered all over the world, in Canada, USA, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, and Tasmania. The enthu siastic welcomes and the Unique at mosphere of encounters remained for a long time in the memory of every body and especially for the Poles who were living so far from their native land. On the other hand, academic trips brought the Cardinal Wojtyla recognition among the world’s theolo gians and philosophers. In February 1976, Cardinal Wojtyla was invited to the Vatican by Paul VI to deliver 22 lectures in retreats. Apart from the Holy Father, cardinals, bishops, prelates and members of the Pope’s household took part in these retreats. At this time, he was the chairman of the Commission for Catholic Education and of the Com mission for the Lay A postdate of the Polish Episcopate. He was elected to the permanent body of the Secretariat of the Bishops’ Synod which meet in Rome every two years arid to which conferences he was faithfully present. He was widely known. Cardinal Wojtyla impressed every one .who met him as a very warm person, concerned and solicitous of everyone, with an air of gentleness about him. People who know him agree that he is a man before anything. In a discussion, he would approach the matter discussed from the point of view of the man who raised the pro blem. Hence, every issue is separate and needs to be treated in connectiqn with a human being who is troubled by it. According to Prof. George Williams, a theologian from the Divi nity School of Harvard University: “His own doctrine is of the individual human being. He has this marvellous capacity to listen.. .Ministers generally don’t listen - they propound. He is more inclined in conversations with people to ask as many questions as he responds to. He has these wohderful blue eyes that look out at you and you feel that you are taken seriously. He is always the person before he is the cardinal. There is something unusually direct about him. There is that extra ordinary face-to-face* swift establish ment of that measure of intimacy that is appropriate to the occasion. He has physical vigour and a powerful mind. You feel it. He has effortless thinking, in a positive sense. His mind, the machinery is so well-oiled that it is effortless thinking. It is a delight to talk to him, to respond to his questions.”(TPP) Fr. Walter Ziemba, the priest as signed as his companion In the 1976 US visit for 17 out of the 37 days. Page 8 CROSS commented: “First, he is a man of tremendous sensitivity - with a rare ability to listen ... We had a full schedule but he never rushed. We were not always on time because he would not rush and hurt the feelings of the person he was with. To him, the value of the present person always out weighed the value of where we were going, because we’d get there eventual ly. He’s always in complete control, he had tremendous equanimity. His directness extended to his own needs. He knew when he had to stop and rest.” (TPP) According to his life-long friend Mieczyslaw Malinski, when asked to give a character sketch of the new Pope, lie enumerated the following: “First, he is a man who prays a great deal and even placed a table in his chapel so that Iris prayer could pene trate his work. Second, he is a man who knows how to work extremely hard. He has a tremendous power of concentrating-on what he is saying or doing. Third, he knows how to take time out of his hectic schedule and really come back renewed and refresh ed. Fourth, he is a poor man. He has no property at all and no interest in material things. He has very little money and literally owns nothing ex cept a few books he needs. Not that he is an ascetic but simply that when he decided as a young man to become a priest, he resolved to devote himself entirely to the service of God and his fellow-men and to allow nothing to hinder or distract him from that work. Fifth, he is extremely well prepared to be a pope: all his life has been spent in pastoral activity, that is, he was never content to act through others but he remained in contact with individuals and families and took a personal interest in them. He performed mar riages, baptized children, conducted funerals, visited people at all times. At Christmas, he took part in carol sing ing and invited people to his house for dinner and for other feasts. As a friend, he took note of birthdays and feastdays. As a philosopher, he was an expert in his field and was known for his special interventions during Vati can II. He served on the Episcopal Synod which met every two years after the council where he got to know many Bishops and Cardinals. He went to Rome for two months every year to fulfill his duties. A linguist, he knows Italian, English, French, Spanish, German and Russian. Sixth, he is very good at getting along with people. As soon as he meets anyone, he gives the impression that, for him, at that moment, there is nobody more important than that person. He knows how to listen and will do so for a long time without saying much himself. “There is much excitement about the Pope now and whereas excitement is short-lived in the nature of things, enthusiasm about him will last. I don’t think people will be disappointed in him. I know he will go on working as he did in Krakow and will continue to be the same marvelous man, admired by all who know him. Of course, there will be difficult times and hard deci sions, if only on personal and disciplin ary matters, for he is a man who knows what he wants. So the going will be uphill at times, but I am sure plenty of people will follow him.” (PJP) IBs clear mind had grasped clearly the problems of the Church today when he summarized one session in Rome: “Latin America had brought to the fore the problems of human libera tion, Africa that of indigenization of the Church, Asia that of relations with the great non-Christian religions, while Europe and North America bore wit ness to the role of Christianity in a world that was becoming more and more secular.” (PJP) The stage was ready. Here was a man so clearly marked to be a Pope. He had lived through a terror-filled war, proven by Auschwitz where six million of his countrymen were brutal ly annihilated. He knew what human dignity is, knew Fascism at first hand, had seen the exploitation ot man by man and by the State. He knew all these things, not from books but from his own life. He knew atheists and he rejected an out-and-out condemnation since that would make subsequent dialogue impossible. He preferred the ‘Heuristic’ approach which tried to find common ground with unbelievers. One had to begin where people were, in the thick of human experience, and move on from there. He said, ‘ It is not the role of the Church to lecture to unbelievers. We are all involved in a search along with our fellowmen .... Let us avoid moralizing or the sug gestion that we have a monopoly of the truth.” (TYTP) On 16 October 1978, on the second day of the conclave, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope. In Wadowice, the result was known im mediately. Evening mass was being celebrated when Canon Zdzislaw Kalwa, his voice faltering, announced the news. The church was hushed and a second later there was an explosion of joy and tears. Everyon knows that this election of a non-Italian Pope electrified the whole world. Journalists descended on Wadowice and Krakow and the folk lore began. After all the copy printed one thing is clear: warm, intense, a person who knows what he wants. The Vatican household was “upset.” The Church lived through a decade in three weeks. It matters very much who is pope. Each pope makes his own mark and from the beginning, Pope John Paul II outlined his pro gram of office. First, he declared, was fidelity to the teachings of Vatican II and its various sections: missionary and ecumenical affairs, discipline and suitable administration, but especially the ecclesiological sections; second, collegiality, a topic that has not yet been sufficiently reflected upon. He told his brother-cardinals that he would try to be a shining example in thinking JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1981 Page 9 LANDSCAPE OF THE HEART continuation and in action because as pope he must “strengthen Iris brethren and feed the sheep and the lambs of the flock as a proof of his love.” AU these would be done in a climate of love as “we want our ministry to be from the outset a ministry of love . . . AVe must aim at this: that aU forms of injustice which exist today should be given considera tion by all in common and should be really eradicated from the world, so that all men may be able to live a life worthy of man.” (TPP) How does the Pope define the office of Peter? John Paul 11 sees himself as joining rather than dividing in spite of seemingly paradoxical stands he takes which might lead to division. But he has one sure-fire for mula to solve aU these. In his address on the day after his election, he recalled the three-fold scriptuial foundation of his office as successor of Peter: he is the rock-apostle (Matt. 16:18-19); he is commanded to ‘con firm tire brethren’ (Luke 22; 32); and to feed the sheep and the lambs of his flock as a witness of love (John 21: 15-17). This office, he said, was en trusted not only to Peter, but also to his legitimate successors. A$_the 265th successor to Peter, John Paul II is convinced that his unique mission must be always done in love. Love wiU therefore be the sustain ing power of this pontificate . Love is the climate and the heart the land scape in which one grows. It is the necessary answer to the question of Jesus: Do you love Me? The millions of Catholics all over the world are under the loving ministry of a Pole, one of the noble people who have suffered too much. This is the landscape of the heart in which Pope John Paul II has always worked. We offer our hearts to him in sincere welcome. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! • —Maria Delia Coronel, iem Prelature of Marawi Marawi City 1. WHOIS LORENZO RUIZ?_______________ LORENZO RUIZ is the first known Filipino who was martyred for the Christian faith. He is the only Filipino in a group of sixteen martyrs of Japan in the 17th century who are candidates for beatification. Lorenzo RuizPROTOMARTYR OF THE PHILIPPINES “lam a Christian ... and although I did not come to Japan to be a martyr, as a Christian and for God I shall give my life.” Page 10 CROSS